A word form a computer illiterate here: An exciting moment, a huge update and a huge disappointment at the same time. It doesn't run at all. I'm using Windows 7 The installation is completed but I cannot run freecol even as an administrator. And I get no message like This program is trying to execute an illegal command to blach blach blach or this file of unknown origin has been blocked yadda yadda yadda or Please update your version of Java. NOTHING. My system just doesn't notice that I'm trying to execute the freecol file. So annoying.
Maybe it's not the game, it's almost certainly my machine or system. I'd just greatly appreciate a clue how to run the game.
And I wanted so much to try and see how the new borders work, since I'm close to finishing the new terrain-sensitive beaches.
Last edit: Misiulo 2014-10-18
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I won't be able to try the game for several hours, but my company uses windows 7 with an antique program that windows 7 doesn't recognize. We had to set up a windows xp mode environment to run it in.
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Extremely. Especially as I can do nothing about it. Can windows users comment please--- has anyone got 0.11.0 running on windows 7? Were there any problems? A hint or two as to what can be done would be really helpful.
From this end, I know of nothing that has changed since 0.10.7. The installer is probably the weakest link, but it has not changed. There are 3 places in the FreeCol codebase that does something windows-specific, none of which have changed. Indeed, I am careful to avoid changing them because I can not test them.
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Installed the .jar on my new comp, Win7x64. Got both 32 and 64-bit Java installed - JRE 8 u 11, haven't got around to the newest update.
Install hung on the last stage, didn't create shortcuts. Gave it lots of time, nothing happened - finally killed it.
Program was installed, though, clicking the .exe launched it. Let the movie run, it never finishes, just hangs with the ships frozen - click through, the game starts.
Works ok until you land a unit, then you get both the name the new land and discovered a new region dialogs at the same time. Click "OK" on one, the whole thing blinks off and back on. Just annoying.
Build a settlement, the game minimizes. Selecting "Save & Exit" or "Quit" also causes it to minimize.
I'll do some more tests tomorrow - try updating Java, try the .exe installer, try it on my x86 laptop.
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[Installer]
I downloaded the ZIP file for Windows, unzipped it and ran freecol.cmd - it started, although the start up takes a little while (as usual) [Movie hangs]
I think the movie runs through to the end; two ships fight with cannon in the last scene, then the movie stops but is still displayed. Clicking or key press and the game starts.
I don't get any minimising of the game. Of course, this proves nothing. I had changed the game to not be full screen, and I am running two monitors; the game is on the laptop screen, and this web page on the other so I can read and write to it. I have also had 10.7 running before, then my own compiled 10.7, then my own compiled trunk code. Windows is notorious for having other programs grab the focus, but that did not happen. I'll post again if I have any issues
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Yes.
"freecol-0.11.0-installer.exe" on Win 7 Home Prem. 64-bit with JRE 8u25 (32-bit):
- shortcut created;
- it was a pause after the intro movie played;
- active GUI-windows are often go at the background, I have to look for them.
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I have installed a little program jarfix, which allows opening jar files in Windows with a doubleclick. And... the freecol.jar is working! Well... kind of. I can't build colonies for example. And the freecol.exe continues to ignore me.
Last edit: Misiulo 2014-10-20
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Updated to JREu25, made no difference. Any action in the founding father dialog also causes the display to blink. It's just an annoyance, actions are carried out correctly.
-edit- Simon Small is correct, the window minimizing happens only in full screen mode - the blinking, too.
To use windowed mode, I had to hide the Windows taskbar, it covers up the Freecol controls.
Last edit: Greenknight32 2014-10-20
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[Movie hangs]
I think the movie runs through to the end; two ships fight with cannon in the last scene, then the movie stops but is still displayed. Clicking or key press and the game starts.
I have given up trying to get the video display component to behave correctly and just wrapped it in a hard coded timeout that will remove the video window when it expires (git.f6fe014).
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Blinking might be due to focus changes. 0.11.0 is more careful about giving the focus to an active component, perhaps there is contention. However if the problem goes away in windowed mode that is less likely.
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I got the exact same error on fullscreen. Playing on Windows XP it doesen't matter if you shut down all other programs or not, i don't have steam installed. Playing in windowed mode work good but then i cannot use the features of the minimap.
Video and installation and works perfect for me. However i wounder if the game really uses the custom difficulty values i try to set up...
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This minimising problem does seem to be common, but then there are a lot of 'suggestions' on how to fix it - I am not convinced on any of them. Maybe later?
In the meantime, I can play on in windowed mode. It does seem that if you switch to windowed mode it does not size the window properly, so you have to do it yourself to avoid losing the bottom bit of the screen. Start the game with the "--windowed=1200x800" argument, using a suitable window size, to avoid this
I also notice that the file "splash.jpg" is missing from the Windows zip file. I don't know about the installer. I copied it from 0.10.7 into the same directory as FreeCol.jar
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I'm happy to announce, the game FINALLY, UNBELIEVABLY runs on my system. Yes that's right. On Windows 7 :> I had to uninstall everyting and install it back It could be many things. I often have to remove or replace some image to test it in the game and some picture happens to be missing the game tends to act weirdly up t oand including not starting.
Last edit: Misiulo 2014-10-20
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if you switch to windowed mode it does not size the window properly, so you have to do it yourself to avoid losing the bottom bit of the screen
This is a general problem that can be seen on various X-based window systems as well. If anyone knows how to get Java to determine the actual useful screen size as distinct from the current full screen size, the developers would be interested.
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I had to uninstall everyting and install it back It could be many things.
I am relieved you have it working. It should not be that complicated.
I often have to remove or replace some image to test it in the game and some picture happens to be missing the game tends to act weirdly up t oand including not starting.
If there is a clear crash in the log file, report it, I will fix it.
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On closer inspection, I noticed in windowed mode the window controls displayed the maximize button. So I maximized it - and it resized to fit the screen, no more overlapping the task bar.
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I'm the one who improved the window sizing code several months ago.
The problem I hit was Java GUI methods that were bugged/incomplete/quirky. So I put in a test with a fallback to some hardcoded values, which naturally cant be optimal on all systems. The comments I added back then described this and gave some hints on how to improve it further.
I see a few ways for you to improve it (I did not look if you changed that code meanwhile):
- Increase the hardcoded fallback values a bit to prevent missing parts behind the taskbar. -> Requires access and manual pixel measuring on all types of systems or at least some more logging and collecting of log files from many people, long tweaking of the values. The result of all that work would be wasted screen area on many systems and possibly more people would be annoyed by having to resize the window manually every time to enlarge it, while the people with hidden parts may still have to resize, too.
- Find a method to maximize the window after creating it. -> Can be annoying for people who want a small window (otherwise they could play in fullscreen if there wasnt other bugs in that mode), needs care to not ignore command line parameters, may produce a visible glitch from first seeing a smaller window, not sure if there is even a Java method for maximizing.
- Create dummy window (hidden if possible), check the size of window decorations; maximize it, check its size, possibly changed size of window decorations and the difference to screen size to find unusable areas like taskbar; destroy it; use the data when creating the real window. -> Ugly graphical glitches shown if it cant be hidden, time wasted on each game start from having an ugly hack in the codebase.
- There was some freecol code that needed to know the client area before creating the window to cache some graphics beforehand, which was going contrary to how the API for the Java GUI wanted to only give correct info when the window was already created. I did not change that, because it was touching too much code. -> Fixing that beforehand by reordering the code could simplify the code, making it easier to get the window sizes correct.
- Save the current window size when closing the game into a config file(in the hope the player resized it to its liking). Then on restart check if there is such a config setting and use it, otherwise fall back to current method. -> Thats what I would prefer.
Last edit: wintertime 2014-10-25
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It just came to my mind that you had this issue with the task bar overlapping. I increased the margin getting reserved for the window border a bit after doing some pixel-counting in gitf31d9dd3.
This should prevent part of the game window getting hidden behind the task bar, when starting the game in windowed mode without explicitly setting a size. But I could only try it on Windows 8.1, not on Windows 7 like you have, so it would be nice if you could confirm if it looks right now!
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This should get you going. I haven't yet modified based on the feedback received when I submitted this about a month ago, but it should be a solid foundation.
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I have looked into doing this before, the challenge of installing ant in Windows scared me off. I may give it another shot, but don't hold your breath waiting for results - the Windows command line is not my friend. I may end up tearing out what's left of my hair and never getting anywhere.
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A word form a computer illiterate here: An exciting moment, a huge update and a huge disappointment at the same time. It doesn't run at all. I'm using Windows 7 The installation is completed but I cannot run freecol even as an administrator. And I get no message like This program is trying to execute an illegal command to blach blach blach or this file of unknown origin has been blocked yadda yadda yadda or Please update your version of Java. NOTHING. My system just doesn't notice that I'm trying to execute the freecol file. So annoying.
Maybe it's not the game, it's almost certainly my machine or system. I'd just greatly appreciate a clue how to run the game.
And I wanted so much to try and see how the new borders work, since I'm close to finishing the new terrain-sensitive beaches.
Last edit: Misiulo 2014-10-18
I won't be able to try the game for several hours, but my company uses windows 7 with an antique program that windows 7 doesn't recognize. We had to set up a windows xp mode environment to run it in.
Extremely. Especially as I can do nothing about it. Can windows users comment please--- has anyone got 0.11.0 running on windows 7? Were there any problems? A hint or two as to what can be done would be really helpful.
From this end, I know of nothing that has changed since 0.10.7. The installer is probably the weakest link, but it has not changed. There are 3 places in the FreeCol codebase that does something windows-specific, none of which have changed. Indeed, I am careful to avoid changing them because I can not test them.
Installed the .jar on my new comp, Win7x64. Got both 32 and 64-bit Java installed - JRE 8 u 11, haven't got around to the newest update.
Install hung on the last stage, didn't create shortcuts. Gave it lots of time, nothing happened - finally killed it.
Program was installed, though, clicking the .exe launched it. Let the movie run, it never finishes, just hangs with the ships frozen - click through, the game starts.
Works ok until you land a unit, then you get both the name the new land and discovered a new region dialogs at the same time. Click "OK" on one, the whole thing blinks off and back on. Just annoying.
Build a settlement, the game minimizes. Selecting "Save & Exit" or "Quit" also causes it to minimize.
I'll do some more tests tomorrow - try updating Java, try the .exe installer, try it on my x86 laptop.
Looks like the installer is broken. Annoying, but not our code. Hopefully an update will fix it.
The movie keeps breaking. I may have to disable it by default until we can find out what the problem is.
That is expected.
That is just weird. What I see is just that you can click on either, in any order and the naming just works.
That is even weirder. I do not think there is any code anywhere in FreeCol to minimize its window.
[Installer]
I downloaded the ZIP file for Windows, unzipped it and ran freecol.cmd - it started, although the start up takes a little while (as usual)
[Movie hangs]
I think the movie runs through to the end; two ships fight with cannon in the last scene, then the movie stops but is still displayed. Clicking or key press and the game starts.
I don't get any minimising of the game. Of course, this proves nothing. I had changed the game to not be full screen, and I am running two monitors; the game is on the laptop screen, and this web page on the other so I can read and write to it. I have also had 10.7 running before, then my own compiled 10.7, then my own compiled trunk code. Windows is notorious for having other programs grab the focus, but that did not happen. I'll post again if I have any issues
Update...
When running in Full Screen mode, the game DOES minimise whenever a new window pops up. Wierd!
Yes.
"freecol-0.11.0-installer.exe" on Win 7 Home Prem. 64-bit with JRE 8u25 (32-bit):
- shortcut created;
- it was a pause after the intro movie played;
- active GUI-windows are often go at the background, I have to look for them.
I have installed a little program jarfix, which allows opening jar files in Windows with a doubleclick. And... the freecol.jar is working! Well... kind of. I can't build colonies for example. And the freecol.exe continues to ignore me.
Last edit: Misiulo 2014-10-20
Updated to JREu25, made no difference. Any action in the founding father dialog also causes the display to blink. It's just an annoyance, actions are carried out correctly.
-edit- Simon Small is correct, the window minimizing happens only in full screen mode - the blinking, too.
To use windowed mode, I had to hide the Windows taskbar, it covers up the Freecol controls.
Last edit: Greenknight32 2014-10-20
I have given up trying to get the video display component to behave correctly and just wrapped it in a hard coded timeout that will remove the video window when it expires (git.f6fe014).
I have no further clue on the minimizing. Googling around though... do any of these sound similar?
Blinking might be due to focus changes. 0.11.0 is more careful about giving the focus to an active component, perhaps there is contention. However if the problem goes away in windowed mode that is less likely.
I got the exact same error on fullscreen. Playing on Windows XP it doesen't matter if you shut down all other programs or not, i don't have steam installed. Playing in windowed mode work good but then i cannot use the features of the minimap.
Video and installation and works perfect for me. However i wounder if the game really uses the custom difficulty values i try to set up...
This minimising problem does seem to be common, but then there are a lot of 'suggestions' on how to fix it - I am not convinced on any of them. Maybe later?
In the meantime, I can play on in windowed mode. It does seem that if you switch to windowed mode it does not size the window properly, so you have to do it yourself to avoid losing the bottom bit of the screen. Start the game with the "--windowed=1200x800" argument, using a suitable window size, to avoid this
I also notice that the file "splash.jpg" is missing from the Windows zip file. I don't know about the installer. I copied it from 0.10.7 into the same directory as FreeCol.jar
I'm happy to announce, the game FINALLY, UNBELIEVABLY runs on my system. Yes that's right. On Windows 7 :> I had to uninstall everyting and install it back It could be many things. I often have to remove or replace some image to test it in the game and some picture happens to be missing the game tends to act weirdly up t oand including not starting.
Last edit: Misiulo 2014-10-20
This is a general problem that can be seen on various X-based window systems as well. If anyone knows how to get Java to determine the actual useful screen size as distinct from the current full screen size, the developers would be interested.
I am relieved you have it working. It should not be that complicated.
If there is a clear crash in the log file, report it, I will fix it.
On closer inspection, I noticed in windowed mode the window controls displayed the maximize button. So I maximized it - and it resized to fit the screen, no more overlapping the task bar.
I'm the one who improved the window sizing code several months ago.
The problem I hit was Java GUI methods that were bugged/incomplete/quirky. So I put in a test with a fallback to some hardcoded values, which naturally cant be optimal on all systems. The comments I added back then described this and gave some hints on how to improve it further.
I see a few ways for you to improve it (I did not look if you changed that code meanwhile):
- Increase the hardcoded fallback values a bit to prevent missing parts behind the taskbar. -> Requires access and manual pixel measuring on all types of systems or at least some more logging and collecting of log files from many people, long tweaking of the values. The result of all that work would be wasted screen area on many systems and possibly more people would be annoyed by having to resize the window manually every time to enlarge it, while the people with hidden parts may still have to resize, too.
- Find a method to maximize the window after creating it. -> Can be annoying for people who want a small window (otherwise they could play in fullscreen if there wasnt other bugs in that mode), needs care to not ignore command line parameters, may produce a visible glitch from first seeing a smaller window, not sure if there is even a Java method for maximizing.
- Create dummy window (hidden if possible), check the size of window decorations; maximize it, check its size, possibly changed size of window decorations and the difference to screen size to find unusable areas like taskbar; destroy it; use the data when creating the real window. -> Ugly graphical glitches shown if it cant be hidden, time wasted on each game start from having an ugly hack in the codebase.
- There was some freecol code that needed to know the client area before creating the window to cache some graphics beforehand, which was going contrary to how the API for the Java GUI wanted to only give correct info when the window was already created. I did not change that, because it was touching too much code. -> Fixing that beforehand by reordering the code could simplify the code, making it easier to get the window sizes correct.
- Save the current window size when closing the game into a config file(in the hope the player resized it to its liking). Then on restart check if there is such a config setting and use it, otherwise fall back to current method. -> Thats what I would prefer.
Last edit: wintertime 2014-10-25
For which thanks again. It is clearly better than it was.
Stack overflow suggests this.
This code is poorly understood by the current developers. Perhaps it can be moved after the window creation.
Ah...it all makes sense now. I have an old 15" monitor, clearly that's smaller than the hard-coded fallback is optimized for.
It just came to my mind that you had this issue with the task bar overlapping. I increased the margin getting reserved for the window border a bit after doing some pixel-counting in gitf31d9dd3.
This should prevent part of the game window getting hidden behind the task bar, when starting the game in windowed mode without explicitly setting a size. But I could only try it on Windows 8.1, not on Windows 7 like you have, so it would be nice if you could confirm if it looks right now!
A bit beyond me, I'm afraid. Wish I could help, but compiling from source code is outside my expertise.
Try the Compiling FreeCol link at the following page: https://sourceforge.net/p/freecol/mailman/message/33206870/
This should get you going. I haven't yet modified based on the feedback received when I submitted this about a month ago, but it should be a solid foundation.
I have looked into doing this before, the challenge of installing ant in Windows scared me off. I may give it another shot, but don't hold your breath waiting for results - the Windows command line is not my friend. I may end up tearing out what's left of my hair and never getting anywhere.